Outlet in garage quit working

A 15A, 125V outlet in my garage just all of the sudden stopped working.
I checked the breaker box, but its mislabeled so Im not really sure which breaker belongs to that circuit. Nonetheless, NONE of the breakers were tripped. I tried replacing the outlet itself, thinking that maybe it "went bad" or something <shrug> but that wasnt it either.

Could the breaker itself be bad? Maybe it malfunctioned somehow wout tripping?

Im kinda at a loss as to what to do. Its an important outlet, and Im a poor graduate student and cant afford an electrician. I am a physicist, however, so I "get" electricty. Im also pretty handy. Just need some nudging in the right direction here.

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If this is a fairly recently built house, this outlet is GFCI protected. I'll bet that somewhere in your house is a GFCI receptacle that is protecting the garage outlet.
Try the bathrooms, outside outlets, any unfinished area in your basement.

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__________________
John from Baltimore
One Day at a Time "Experience is what you get when you were expecting something else""The bitterness of low quality lingers long after the sweetness of low cost is forgotten"

Are they working?
Did you check to see if they were GFCI protected before changing?
It was common to install 1 GFCI recepticle to protect bathrooms, outside outlets, grarage outlets, all on 1 circuit. If the 1 GFCI trips, they all will go out.

__________________
John from Baltimore
One Day at a Time "Experience is what you get when you were expecting something else""The bitterness of low quality lingers long after the sweetness of low cost is forgotten"

Are they working?
Did you check to see if they were GFCI protected before changing?
It was common to install 1 GFCI recepticle to protect bathrooms, outside outlets, grarage outlets, all on 1 circuit. If the 1 GFCI trips, they all will go out.

Every circuit in the house seems to be working fine. All the other outlets etc in the garage are working fine. Its really strange.

I hope you turned the main off when you changed that outlet. Otherwise without testing for power you could have taken a pretty good hit from a live wire. In 1987 gfci was required for garage outlets. Gfci was first required in garages during the 1978 code cycle so yours are gfci protected unless someone defeated this protection. Get a voltage tester if your not using one. My garage outlets are protected from a bathroom gfci.
FYI bathroom gfci was required in 1975, kitchens in 1987. So unless your in one of those areas that is 3 code cycles behind the rest of the world (there are a few of them) you have gfci for that garage. Heres what I would... I would trip out any existing gfci's to see what one kills the other garage outlets. If you are unsucessful getting a gfci receptacle to denergize the garage outlets then find the breaker that does. Most garage outlets are daisy chained.. ie .. from one to the other and so on. The door openers are probably on another circuit that is not gfci. Most garages have two circuits the openers on one and the wall outlets on another.

The outdoor outlets are gfci so check them. The bathrooms should have been. At anyrate get the power off the other garage oulets.

Check to see if the outlet in question is end of run (one cable entering). It sounds like it is if the other outlets are working or it is middle of the run with a bad connection or pigtailed. Back up to the next working outlet and open it up (power off!!!), check to see if all the connections are good and test the wires coming and going for power. Do not use a non-contact tester for this. If the receptacles are backstabbed move the wires from the hole to the screws or better yet replace the receptacle. Just cut the wires up close and restrip. Again please make sure power is off. Once you have looked and made corrections at all the receptacles in the garage turn the power back on and see if this has restored power.